


Just Like You

by jeffersinning



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Father Son Bonding, matt holt gets glasses, may possibly be continued with a second part on katie and colleen but we’ll see, road rage sam, sam holt is a great dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 10:13:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17098676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeffersinning/pseuds/jeffersinning
Summary: Matt mostly takes after Sam.





	Just Like You

It hadn’t hit Sam that Matt took so much after him until his third grade teacher called home expressing concern in regards to Matt’s eyesight.

Though it wasn’t proven that eyesight was hereditary, he was sure that it was his fault that Matt was having problems seeing. Colleen had perfect vision fit for a pilot, though she never pursued that path. Sam, on the other hand, could find himself wearing glasses in his childhood photos all the way back to around Matt’s age.

Matt seemed reluctant about the entire ordeal and later expressed that he first had problems seeing in first grade, but none of the material was pressing enough that he wasn’t able to figure it out on his own. Multiplication and division tables must have got to him though.

While Matt was mostly very easygoing like Sam, he still had a streak of Colleen in him, and Sam was witnessing it firsthand.

“I don’t wanna go,” the nine-year old proclaimed, seated stubbornly on the floor closer to the TV than he should have been. Sam sighed, frowning down at Matt.

“Matt, please don’t give me a hard time,” he pleaded, towering over the seated Matt. The young boy didn’t budge.

This went on for another five minutes, as Sam kept checking his watch to ensure they wouldn’t be late. If they left within the next five minutes and traffic wasn’t bad, they could make it.

“Matthew. We’re leaving now,” Sam said, using the most demanding parenting voice he could muster. He walked over to go turn off the TV, only to result in a whine from Matt.

“Fine,” the boy said, getting up and stomping all the way to the foyer to put his shoes on.

Matt took quite a long time to tie his shoes, and his sweet time to buckle his seatbelt. Eventually Sam was able to drive off, only three minutes later than he’d wanted to.

Traffic was absolute garbage, and Sam had his usual bout of road rage when he was almost cut off by another driver. He started to _sweat_ when the clock turned to 16:00 and they were still not at the eye doctor’s.

They arrived a solid ten minutes late, and Sam dragged Matt through the door, already apologizing for being late before he even completely stepped foot into the office. He went through the usual stuff with the receptionist, and eventually they were seated in the waiting room. Matt’s face was in a perpetual pout as he sat with his arms crossed in the seat.

“Do you want me to go with y-“

He cut Sam off. “No.”

The ophthalmologist came out soon after and called out Matt’s name. The boy reluctantly got up, following the optician deeper into the office. Sam could only sigh, slumping in his chair. Out of all things Matt could have acquired from Colleen, he had to get her stubbornness streak. At least he wasn’t nearly as bad as Katie.

And she was only five. Sam couldn’t even imagine what she’d be like at Matt’s age.

He spent most of the wait time watching the TV in the waiting room cycle through informational eye-care videos, while occasionally answering texts from Colleen asking about what they should have for dinner and whether he did the dishes and whatnot. In the midst of a video on cataracts, the ophthalmologist emerged from the back, with a very unhappy-looking Matt in tow.

“Hello Mr. Holt,” he greeted, reaching a hand out for Sam to shake. Sam stood, returning the handshake.

“I apologize if he gave you any trouble,” Sam said, frowning at Matt. Matt only stuck out his tongue in return.

“It’s fine, I understand,” he said, smiling down at Matt. “He’s going to need glasses. Are you going to take a look around here? ”

“Here is fine,” Sam said with a nod. The ophthalmologist nodded back, and left the two Holt’s in the waiting room. Sam turned to Matt. “Do you want to pick? Or am I going to have to?”

Matt gave Sam the old eye-roll again, marching off to the displays of glasses and frowning. He examined the rows of frames carefully before making a decision without even trying any of them on.

The frames he settled on were plain and circular, nothing special. Sam asked him if he wanted to try them on, but Matt refused. An optician came over to check on them, and insisted that Matt try them on before deciding.

The frames were quite owlish, and a little big on Matt’s face. They suited him well though, and Sam was surprised that he was able to pick a pair that well without even putting them on.

The office had a one-hour lens service, so Sam told Matt they could go get a special treat to eat before returning and then going home. It was supposed to be a secret, and Colleen would kill him if she found out, but Sam needed to get Matt to chill out a bit.

That was how they found themselves sitting in a McDonald’s sharing a small fry. Matt was happily munching away, and Sam was watching him for the most part.

“Why were you being so difficult about the glasses?” Sam asked, frowning at Matt. Matt stopped chewing, only to start up again and not respond.

Sam sighed, sinking into the hard plastic chair. He was giving him quite the run for his money. “Matthew.”

“They’re going to pick on me,” he said, catching his father off guard. “Everyone says I’m a smarty pants and they don’t like me.”

Sam waited for a minute so Matt could continue, as it seemed like he was in the midst of a trail of thought, the gears still turning in his brain.

“Nobody invites me to birthday parties. In lunch I sit alone. I don’t want glasses because everyone will think I’m even weirder.”

Those were some big observations for a nine-year old. Matt was a smart boy though, and it seemed like the other kids in school were catching on. Sam hadn’t even thought that something like this would be an issue. The times were different now, were they not? Where and how they lived now was far different from where Sam grew up, and he’d thought that people would be more accepting of things like this.

He was wrong, apparently.

“I know how you feel,” he told Matt, and the nine year old’s eyes widened. “The kids in school didn’t like me either. They all thought I was weird. But you know what?”

Matt was listening intently. The fries were abandoned.

“You’re really smart. You shouldn’t let the opinions of other kids take that away from you. Keep learning and studying, because that’s how I got into the Galaxy Garrison.”

The mention of the Garrison made Matt’s eyes light up. It was like Sam had sparked a realization in him. “You’re right, dad,” Matt said, grinning happily. “I guess being more like you isn’t that bad after all.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “More like me?”

Matt nodded. “You wear glasses too!”

Oh right.

“When I grow up, I want to get in the Garrison and go on all kinds of space missions like you!” the young boy exclaimed, a twinkle in his eyes. “I want to be just like you!”

Sam smiled at his excitement, glad that he had changed Matt’s outlook. Little did he know, he was already so much like his father.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Authors Note does have a minor spoiler about a character’s personality, ignore if you don’t want to see it. 
> 
> i just wanted some domestic holt family. and more sam. 
> 
> i was inspired by the family dynamic of the holt’s and really wanted to explore how similar matt and sam are?? because katie is so much like colleen its alarming??   
> (that last sentence was the spoiler if you were wondering. doesn’t give away much but it’s a little. we don’t see too much colleen in s7 and i feel like in s8 the full wrath of colleen holt is expressed more clearly)
> 
> also sam’s little pep talk to matt may sound familiar. i wanted to touch on where matt may have found that self-confidence that he spread to katie, and talk a little more about how matt giving katie his glasses was sort of like giving her his confidence? idk, shoot me, im trying
> 
> if i continue this, it’ll probably only be with a second part focusing on colleen and katie. we’ll see.


End file.
